WASHINGTON, D.C. – After a 15-year increase,
substantiated child sexual abuse cases in the United States dropped 31 percent
from 1992 to 1998, according to a new report from the Justice Department’s
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).Most states – 36 out of the 47 reporting
–showed declines of at least 30
percent.

“These new data are quite remarkable,” said
OJJDP Acting Administrator John J. Wilson.“The challenge now is to increase our understanding of why these cases
are declining and to use this information to better prevent and respond to
child sexual abuse.”

The
drop in child sexual abuse cases was much greater than the decline in physical
abuse or neglect cases over the same period.The bulletin, The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases, offers
possible explanations.One possibility
is an actual fall in the incidence of child sexual abuse.Key parallel indicators, such as the rates
of female victimization by intimate partners, rapes and overall violent crime,
have fallen in recent years.Recent
statistics also show a decrease in the rate of teen births, which can be
closely related to child sexual abuse.

Another possibility is that issues unrelated
to actual occurrence of child sexual abuse are affecting the way child sexual
abuse is reported.For example, the
public and professionals could be better able to distinguish between child
sexual abuse and other problems.

The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases was prepared for OJJDP by Drs. Lisa Jones
andDavid Finkelhor of the University
of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center.They used data from the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services’ National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, as
well as data from the Annual Fifty State Survey conducted by Prevent Child
Abuse America.

The Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases and information about OJJDP publications,
programs and conferences are available through the OJJDP Website at www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org
and from OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse, Box 6000, Rockville, Maryland
20857. The toll-free number is 1-800/638-8736.

Information about other Office of Justice
Programs (OJP) bureaus and program offices is available at www.ojp.usdoj.gov.Media should contact OJP’s Office of
Congressional and Public Affairs at 202/307-0703.